Pastor Welcomes Birth of 2nd Sermon Illustration - Lark News

As with their first daughter Lauren, whatever Allie does or says will now provide a rich resource for Parker’s ministry.

Pastor Darren Parker of Covenant Church welcomed his second sermon illustration on Thursday, a baby girl named Allie May who weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and promises to provide years of funny anecdotes for her father’s weekly messages.

“I am so overjoyed at little Allie May’s arrival and can’t wait to use every detail of her life in stories I tell from the pulpit,” says Parker sitting next to his wife’s bed. “What an awesome privilege.”

As with their first daughter Lauren, whatever Allie does or says will now provide a rich resource for Parker’s ministry. The Parkers even chose the name “Allie May” because it flows so well off the tongue.

Parker often brings along a scratch pad to take notes on each of his children’s actions and utterances which might support a point in his messages. He then delves into the meaning of even the most minute word or gesture. Recently, while out to ice cream with Lauren, Parker jotted extensive observations about her decision-making.

“She was conflicted about ordering orange sherbet or rocky road, and she stood there pondering the choice for quite some time,” he says. “In the end she chose rocky road not for the flavor but because there’s ‘more stuff in it.’ What a powerful lesson for all of us.”

The full article is available here

Benediction: A Strong Foundation In The Storm (based on Matthew 7:24-27)

May we always be paying attention, seeking out the whisper of God’s spirit within and around us.

May we listen for and hear God speaking to us, using those words of grace and truth as a secure footing for our souls.

When life’s inevitable storms rage against us with howling winds and pounding waves, may our hope in God be a strong foundation.

Responsive Call To Worship: God Speaking To Our Souls (based on Psalm 119)

Reader: God, you continually move within and around us.
All: You are always speaking to our souls, whether we hear it or not.

Reader: May we tend to these seeds that you plant so that they can grow.
All: We need your grace to water our often dry, dehydrated souls.

Reader: May we hear your voice in everything within and around us.
All: Make our souls open to your grace and love in every part of the universe.

Reader: God, you move us like a gentle breeze on the water.
May our minds be open in expectation.
All: May our hearts be stirred by your spirit
as we read, sing and listen together.

How To Write A Worship Song In 5 Minutes Or Less - from The Blimey Cow

Justice, Not Charity - Mary Wollstonecraft

To the Dying Church: Sharing our Wounds - by Cindy Brandt in Sojourner's

But we do not come to you carrying that much pain just so we can sing some feel-good songs and be sent on our way.

Dear Church,

You are dying because you've been applying band aids for a far deeper problem. You are consistently doling out superficial remedies for surface wounds when the source of pain lays untreated.

When hurting people walk through your doors, you play the positive thinking guru and dispense quick fixes with inspirational quotes. You provide cheap grace and empty promises that are driving people out your doors.  

You have traded in a revolution for a scripted life.  

Why do you insist on being sanitized? Why are you so afraid of the mess?  We want you to point us to the God who is not afraid to enter the messiness of our humanity.

Looking outward we see unspeakable violence perpetrated against the weakest among us. We see mass destruction of trees, animal species driven to extinction, and waters polluted by human greed. We see nations fighting, people persecuted, and children dying of abject poverty. Looking inward we find our own feelings of loneliness, isolation, powerlessness, and guilt. We are confused, afraid, and hurting.

But we do not come to you carrying that much pain, just so we can sing some feel-good songs and be sent on our way.  You have missed the mark on addressing a deep, felt need to be meaningful.  We want to speak the truth about how truly messed up we are, in your sanctuary: a safe haven. Safe to be real, safe to hurt, safe to lament. A safe place to figure it all out with other broken people.

We don’t want the band aid: we want to air out our wounds in an atmosphere inviting true healing. We need to feel the extent of our pain so we can be driven to find the root causes. We want to share our wounds with one another, because when it really, really hurts, it matters to know we are not alone. 

Help us wade through these deep, dark waters of anxiety; together in the diminishing numbers of communities which are hobbling forward by faith. It hurts to dig deeper. It’s painful to get inside of our anxieties and face them full-on. 

The full article is variable here

Prayer - Holiness Is About The Work of Redemption & Transformation

God, you are gracious in love and mercy.
When we sing of your holiness, it is our way of reminding ourselves that you are the source of redemption and transformation in life. Reveal yourself to us; guide us according to your grace and wisdom. Teach us how to love as you have loved us. May we then be your hands and feet, so that those weak with sorrow find joy, those in despair find new hope, those frightened find peace and those bound find freedom. Amen

2 Big Ways To Keep Your Church Music Fresh - Church Leaders

There is no pat answer for avoiding cliché. It takes extra care and intentionality by each and every person involved in the creative process.

The common misconception is that if something works for a while, it will work forever.  This is commonplace in the Church. We become attached to our practices.

In order to keep the Gospel message of Jesus Christ fresh, you do not need more. But you do need change. Innovation means something new.

For church band leaders, we can keep things fresh by doing a couple of simple things.

1. Remove “safety” from your Sunday service ideals
Safety is important when it comes to keeping my children alive or making sure I stay on the right side of the road. I promise you that the person who is stepping into church for the first time in 10 years fully expects to be rocked a little. Precaution from you will only lead to precaution from them.

2. Look at what has comatosed your congregation
There is no pat answer for avoiding cliché. It takes extra care and intentionality by each and every person involved in the creative process.  A good idea would be to go back through your services and see what has comatosed your crowd, and disturb and disrupt them to a place where they are able to see Christ’s face fresh again.

The full article is available here

I Am The Way - Kayla McClurg in Inward/Outward

The way of Jesus is a giving-receiving-confronting-sacrificial way that does not seek its own security. It embraces, never shuns, the outsider.

The interpretation of this one pivotal passage has meant the difference for many between loving or hating religion in general and Christianity in particular.

Did Jesus really believe God is limited to only one way to reach humankind? Did he intend to exclude all who seek God on other paths?

How this statement gets interpreted probably says more about the interpreter than about Jesus. Whether we see the way and the truth and the life of Jesus as generously inclusive, or narrowly bound, might indicate how free or limited is our own inner realm.

Throughout his public ministry, Jesus clearly shows that he did not come to establish philosophical theories about God, but to give us a way—a way to journey to God, and with God, in right here, right now practices of love.

The way of Jesus is a giving-receiving-confronting-sacrificial way that does not seek its own security. It embraces, never shuns, the outsider. It is a way that calls us to lay down the limited vision of our private paths and to join others as a sign to the world of God’s great community of compassion.

When I hear Jesus saying, “I am the way,” I hear, “This way I’ve been living is the way.” The truth and life of my life, rooted in mercy and an ever-expanding generosity, are the way to God.

The full article is available here

Benediction: Live Out Real Love

May we follow God’s example
so that we can live out real love.  

May we be people of steadfast hope
and powerful giving.  

May who God is and how Jesus lived challenge us
to give of ourselves in service and love.

Reflection and Renewal: Living In Love (based on 1 John 4:7)

God, There are times when we want to love in the way that you've showed us, but we aren't able to. Other times we are on auto-pilot and don’t give any thought or attention to living a life of love.  And other times we are simply unwilling to love.

We are in need of forgiveness and mercy.  In your endless love and bottomless grace, forgive us and help us to learn to let go of our guilt, apathy and lovelessness. In it’s place, let our hearts beat with your love, to set things right here and now as in heaven. Let us be attentive and willing to pass on your love. Amen.

Responsive Call To Worship: Come Into God's Presence (based on Psalm 103)

Reader: We are thirsty and parched, like an unwatered garden, so we come into God’s presence.
All: It is like a fresh-water spring.

Reader: We are exhausted from worry and struggling, so we come into God’s presence
All: There, we are offered rest.

Reader: We are lost and confused, so we come into God’s presence.
All: There, we are offered welcome and guidance.

Reader: We are weighed down with guilt and pain, so we come into God’s presence
All: It helps us to remain standing.

Reader: Let us give thanks with singing
All: Let us always remember God's goodness and love towards us.

The U.S. Church's Absence of Lament - Soong-Chan Rah in Emerging Voices

For U.S. evangelicals riding the fumes of a previous generation’s Christendom assumptions, a triumphalist theology of celebration and privilege - rooted in a praise-only narrative - is perpetuated by the absence of lament and the underlying narrative of pain, suffering, and injustice that informs lament.

When we consider the typical church worship service in the United States, we discover certain trends. Lament and stories of suffering are conspicuously absent.

In Hurting with God, Glenn Pemberton notes that laments constitute 40% of the Psalms.  Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) licenses local churches for the use of contemporary worship songs. CCLI tracks the songs that are employed by local churches, and its list of the top 100 worship songs as of August 2012 reveals that only five of the songs would qualify as a lament.

How we worship reveals what we prioritize. The American church avoids lament. Consequently the underlying narrative of suffering that requires lament is lost in lieu of a triumphalistic, victorious narrative. We forget the necessity of lament over suffering and pain.

Lament acknowledges the pain and suffering that has led to current injustices. Lament challenges the status quo of injustice. American Christians that flourish under the existing system seek to maintain the status quo and avoid lament.

Self-absorbed Christians who are apathetic towards injustice don't suddenly appear by happenstance. 

For American evangelicals riding the fumes of a previous generation’s Christendom assumptions, a triumphalist theology of celebration and privilege rooted in a praise-only narrative is perpetuated by the absence of lament and the underlying narrative of pain, suffering, and injustice that informs lament.

The full article is available here

A New Story - Kayla McClurg in Inward/Outward

Sometimes trying to see is the best we can offer God.

We catch brief glimpses, tiny threads of sacred story weaving through our lives, before we slip back into familiar ruts, old narratives, sleep. We crave assurances of the divine, the felt awareness of being companioned by the holy, yet we miss them daily.

A sideways glance from a stranger for some reason pierces our depths; an overheard half-sentence stays with us, like a warning, a love note, an instruction; a brown leaf flutters to the ground and lands on a sprig of green just now arising. For a brief moment we sense the unity of heaven and earth, our mundane existence singing with the life that is Life.

Jesus moves easily in such liminal spaces. Through our locked doors, out on the open road, he reaches out to us, our catalyst and companion.

Meeting Jesus along the way changes our story. Something dead in us, in our communities, is coming alive. The holy is here. Whether we notice or not, we are meeting Jesus on the road.

What do you suppose would be his version ofyour story? Would it be the one about the same old hurts and disappointments and loss, or would these have to give way, uprooted now by grace? I wonder who he would say you are, not were, and what he might say you are here for. I wonder if your heart would warm to hear his version of your story.

We are being remade. What will the rest of the story be? It’s time to start telling it new.

The full article is available here

Christian Tingle - Tripp and Tyler

A long overdue satire of Christian Mingle

Thesis for a New Reformation - Carl Krieg in Progressive Christianity

The traditional Christian church with its traditional message and image is becoming increasingly irrelevant.  It really is time to rethink and reform how we understand both church and world.

We all feel a certain emptiness and search for meaning in life. We all experience moments in which we are lifted out of ourselves by something that transcends our being. We all need to be with others whom we love and who love us.

Today, as always, the world needs a reminder and an image of what it means to be a caring and sharing community, and that is a function well-suited to the church. Other communities can and may and do exhibit the same wholeness, and the function of the church in this regard is to celebrate the love and happiness it sees elsewhere, to reach out to it, and to exemplify that love and happiness in its own being, extending the invitation to share in its community.

The function of the church is threefold. First, and speaking negatively, it is not to convert people to the “one true religion”. It is, rather, to help everyone overcome their parochial perspective, search for meaning, experience those “moments”, and love and be loved.

Secondly, the function of the church is to share the story in Jesus that we are enabled to overcome our parochialism, fill the void in our lives, discover God anew in those moments, and love others.

And, thirdly, we must join with others in doing good in the world.

The full article is available here